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With Just One Queen, How Do Honey Bees Avoid Inbreeding? – Entomology Today

Like other social insects, honey bees live in colonies consisting mainly of closely-related members. However, high genetic diversity among the workers is important for the whole colony’s survival because it makes them better equipped to perform the diverse tasks required in the colony, and it means they will likely be less susceptible to disease.

But how can the queen, the colony’s only fertile female, prevent inbreeding and maintain genetic variation?